Body Shapes & How to Dress for Your Body Shape | Basics 101

Hi guys! How's it going? I hope you're all having a wonderful day so far. Today's video is going to be the first of a brand new series that I wanted to try out. I know you guys really enjoyed the Building Basics, the Time Capsule Wardrobe series. So this new one is just going to be about basics in general and the very first one today is going to be about your body shape and dressing for your body shape. Let's get into it. Your body shape basically refers to your curves and your measurements. So your bust, your waist, and your hip measurements. And you can pretty much figure out your shape based on which of those areas your body holds the most weight. Today I'm going to be covering five different body shapes. I'm sure there are a zillion more because let's face it, no two people have the exact same body. But the five that I'm going to be covering are one, the pear shape. This is what I personally am. This basically means that your hip measurements are a lot wider than your bust and your waist. So you're bottom heavy and you have thicker thighs or wider hips. Next is the apple body shape and the apple shape means that your waistline isn't as defined and you have more of a round silhouette. Typically this means that your bust, your waist, and your hip measurements are very similar and you carry most of your weight in your torso. Then there's the straight slash rectangle body shape. This means that you have little or no waist definition. Your bust, your waist, and your hips are very very similar and your silhouette is pretty well straight. Then there's the inverted triangle which is pretty much the opposite of the pear shape meaning that you hold most of your weight in the bust area. Then there's the hourglass shape and this means that your bust and your hip measurements are around the same size and your waist is smaller and more defined. Now that we've defined some of the different body shapes, why does this matter you ask? Well, basically the human eye is naturally drawn to symmetry and symmetrical things. So if you can figure out which body shape you are, then you can figure out how to visually balance out your outfit, basically making it seem like everything is more symmetrical. Next I just wanted to go through each of the different body shapes and then give you some suggestions on clothing that can work really really well for that body type. But first I just wanted to mention something to keep in mind. Things like color, darker colors like blacks, they tend to minimize the appearance of things whereas brighter colors tend to maximize the appearance of things. And also things like patterns and details, those can also maximize the appearance of things like ruffles or pockets in certain areas. So just be very conscious of things like that. If you're only interested in hearing about your specific body type, then I will leave the timestamps in the description and you can go ahead and skip to yours. But I'm going to be starting off with the pear shape. With a pear shape body, you ideally want to balance out your upper half since you are a little bit more bottom heavy. So some items that can work really well for you include things like patterned or brighter colored tops, off the shoulder styles, maybe something with some ruffles, darker colored bottoms or A-line skirts. Next up for the apple shape, typically you're going to want to focus on things that are going to define your waistline to give you that visual symmetry. So some items that can work really well on your body type include things like belts that help bring in your waistline, something like a wrap dress, maybe some deeper necklines, longer flowing skirts, wider legged bottoms, or bottoms with patterns or details going on. With a straighter or rectangle body shape, you typically want to create a little bit of dimension with your clothing. So items that can work really well for your body type include harem style pants, tops with gathered waist, some oversized shirts, or blouses with details, maybe around the shoulders or something like that. With the inverted triangle shape, you're trying to visually balance out your bottoms since you are a little bit more top heavy. So items that can work really well for your body type include things like bottoms with patterns or details, maybe wide leg pants, A-line skirts, tops that are peplum style or v-neck style tops, just items like that. And then lastly with the hourglass shape, some items that can work really, really well for your body type, wrap style dresses, v-necks, fitted jackets and blazers, pencil skirts, and mid or high rise pants. That is pretty much it. I'm going to link my blog post down below because I did go into a little bit more detail about all of this stuff and I've also included some of the links to some of the items that I've showed if you guys are interested in that. But yeah, hopefully you guys found this video helpful. I mean, at the end of the day, these are just some guidelines. They're not rules and they're not laws, so take it all with a grain of salt. Like I'm a pear shape and I still really like to wear very fitted things around my hips sometimes, so do you at the end of the day and wear what you're comfortable in. But hopefully you guys learned something from this and I will see you in my next video. Bye!